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And Hodgson says he feels the former Aston Villa and Liverpool man is ready to go, but that he still has to work hard as he looks to rediscover his form following his knee ligament injury.

"I think we will probably have to keep working at it, but I don’t know Christian Benteke well enough, I’ve only worked with him for two and a half weeks now since he got back from injury, so I don’t quite know what level you are comparing with," he said in response to a question of whether he was back to the levels he has previously shown.

(Image: Getty Images)

"You obviously have an image in your mind of a certain Benteke, with a certain sharpness, I don’t have any image of Benteke in my head other than the guy I’ve seen for the last two weeks.

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"So I just have to be patient and see, but we know, or at least I know that his period from January last year when the the club needed his goals to help us survive was a very good one for him and we are rather hoping what he did then for the club with his goals, he’ll be able to do for us now.